So disclaimer I do work for HP but I have had a lot of success with Data Protector. Typically the costs are significantly less than NBU because you don't have per client\san client licenses and I have found that traditionally it just works. Internally it is very simple so it's doesn't tend to break. I am coming from an NBU background on this.

If your in an all VMware environment I have seen a ton of people using VEAM and then pull it to tape with a traditional backup solution...

I've never used it but I'm watching a webinar this afternoon on Arkeia - looks quite interesting hence attending the webinar.

The list of mid-range products that covers virtual, physical, disk, tape, and dedupe at a sensible price point and that lets you use your existing hardware vs. paying a 200% markup for a supermicro based appliance seems quite limited.

Unitrends seems to get some good feedback, again I've never used it but I'd certainly be looking at it.

This*, but only until Veeam gets tape support in Q3 - then BE will be dropped like the boat anchor it is currently.

[*except currently running 2012]

Is B2T support on their public roadmap now? I haven't seen it on there before.

I spoke with one of their sales guys and then one of their software guys on a separate call. They independently confirmed there would be tape support in the next version to be released in Q3 2013 - which I heard as Q2 2014, because c'mon lets be honest here. Take it for what it's worth though, we all know what happened with WinFS and Longhorn.

Not sure what midsize means but I'm using DPM2010 for some Windows servers and I am a big fan. It just works. I wish it had better reporting but in the scheme of things, it's not a deal breaker. It's storage-hungry though.

We use MS DPM 2010. Very happy with it. Previous version was rough around the edges which turned a lot of folks off DPM (poor tape library support, filled backup volumes could not grow automatically grrrrr!!!, and consistency checks would not run automatically). Well all that has been fixed in 2010. We use it for D2D and D2T backups, about 60 servers, protecting SQL DBs, Exchange, file servers, Sharepoint, Hyper-V guests, and could not be happier with it. It just works. I never need to go into the console to manually fixup backups.

BE OTOH was annoying back when Veritas was independent. Things would fail for no reason, then work again for no reason. BE has gone downhill without brakes since Symantec bought them.

Perhaps I should have been as detailed as Dilbert but we use DPM2010 for the exact same services, 30ish servers. I switched from the nightmare that was/is BE to DPM2007 way back when and have never looked back. If you don't have an actual tape drive, you could look into a VTL for long-term storage.

Maybe I'll look at DPM2012 later this year but 2010 does everything we need.

I've never used it but I'm watching a webinar this afternoon on Arkeia - looks quite interesting hence attending the webinar.

The list of mid-range products that covers virtual, physical, disk, tape, and dedupe at a sensible price point and that lets you use your existing hardware vs. paying a 200% markup for a supermicro based appliance seems quite limited.

Unitrends seems to get some good feedback, again I've never used it but I'd certainly be looking at it.

Wow, I haven't seen Arkeia mentioned in a loooong time.

Last time I played with it, it was a clunky Linux solution, but it worked, and backed up my old Proliant 2500 dual PPro machine to it's own internal 15/30 DLT drive.